


When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

by GatorJen



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Civil War, F/M, Female Civil War Soldier, Off-screen Character Death, Period-Typical Racism, Realistic Depictions of Battlefield Violence, Steggy Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-05 23:31:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13398594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GatorJen/pseuds/GatorJen
Summary: Peggy was lucky she and Michael were approximately the same height and weight; it made it frighteningly easy to declare herself Michael Carter, private with the 14th Regiment, preparing to go into battle to preserve the Union and abolish slavery from the nation.  Steve wasn't pleased with her decision, but he knew better than to argue with her.  He resolved he would do what was necessary to keep her secret and he knew it would be easy to convince the fellas to keep it as well.  Now if he could just stop looking at her like she hung the moon.





	When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tangofic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangofic/gifts).



> This is an exceedingly late Steggy Secret Santa gift for [Tangofic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangofic/pseuds/Tangofic). I'm so sorry this has taken so long and that it's still not finished yet! I wanted to at least get up the beginning chapter, as I'm estimating this will be at least four chapters total, if not more. 
> 
> Please note the warnings as well as additional tags I've added. This is a story that is set firmly within the American Civil War and I will be detailing actual battles that occurred, so there will be violence and blood. I've tried to be as historically accurate as I can with my depictions and this will necessarily include period-typical racism as it's something you can't escape in this context. However, our main characters are firmly abolitionist in their views and I've done my best to keep them as in character as possible. I'm also doing my best to work all of the Howling Commandos into this story that I can.
> 
> I had a backstory for Peggy and Michael leaving England and coming to America, but it just wasn't working, so I've not included it here. Peggy, Steve, Bucky, and Angie are all 21 are the beginning of this story. Peggy and Michael came over from England in 1858 and settled in Brooklyn. Steve was born in Ireland and his family came to Brooklyn during the middle of the Irish Potato Famine, but his parents perished during the cholera outbreak in New York of 1849. Bucky and his family took him in. Bucky and Angie are married in this, but their relationship is mostly in the background.
> 
> Story title taken from the Walt Whitman poem of the same name.

* * *

 

**Prologue**

Michael was dead. 

Maybe if she didn’t say it out loud, it wouldn’t be true.  Maybe this ache, this hole right in the center of her chest, would close up and go away.  Just when they had finally begun to put the death of their parents behind them, when they had made such good friends that were like family in this new country, when Steve had at last begun to court her, her world came crashing down around her again.

He had been healthy only a few days before, celebrating with the boys after enlisting with the 14th. They had regaled each other with more and more outlandish stories of how they were going to whip those Rebels, how those Southern boys were lucky Peggy couldn’t come fight with them because the war would be over in a day. 

Then cholera descended upon him and it felt like he was gone before she could blink.  She ran her hands over the uniform he would have put on as he marched to war, the red trousers distractingly bright, and heard his voice in her head, “I would unite with anybody to do right; and with nobody to do wrong.” 

It was like a fog had lifted from over her and she knew what she had to do.  With a glance at the bed where Michael had breathed his last, Peggy turned from the room to the hallway where she knew Angie was pacing.

“Angie, I need your help.”

**Author's Note:**

> [The 14th Brooklyn Chasseurs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Regiment_\(New_York_State_Militia\)) is the regiment they have all enlisted in. It literally couldn't be more perfectly suited to this group. They were primarily composed of abolitionists in the Brooklyn area and wore the most amazingly bright red uniforms. They also fought in four of the most well known Civil War battles.
> 
> The quote Peggy hears in her head is actually a quote from Frederick Douglass from his 1855 speech, "The Anti-Slavery Movement." It was a favorite quote of Michael's.
> 
> A huge influence for Peggy's journey here is a book I read about ten years ago titled "They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War" by Deanne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook. It's an amazingly fascinating read, and I would highly recommend reading it if you have any interest. 
> 
> If you're a history nerd like me (that's what my college diploma says at least), I also recommend Shelby Foote's seminal work, "The Civil War: A Narrative." This is an extraordinarily in depth American Civil War history book, so prepare yourself if you decide to dig into it. He makes it easier to visualize complex troop movements in your mind and brings the figures in the book to life.


End file.
